When to fertilize after transplanting?..with what?

[stormymater]

The oldest transplants are now 2 weeks out - 18 ounce beer cups in Metromix 360 up to their little necks. Then out into the back yard - sitting on the black soil in my raised beds. They have grown but seen much skinnier & leggy & purple than pics I've been looking at (nice plants Barbee!) here. I was thinking of using diluted Alaskan fish fertilizer (0-10-10) - like 1/4 strength after the next watering but am open to recs. You folks have gotten me this far! LOL (& thanks, seriously)
I believe the purple is from being cast out into the cool world...
will try for pics but don't really want to be reported to SSI for tomato babies...

[amideutch]

Stormy, your asking a loaded question with not enough information to give a proper answer. Have you planted the transplants yet? The raised bed you are planting in, have any amendments been added to it prior to this plant out? If so, what? Did you grow anything in the bed last year and if so what? Have you ever had disease problems with plants grown in this bed before? Too many times we get an itchy fertilizer finger when planting out rather than waiting till the plants get established first. Ami

[stormymater]

oh my bad for not being clear - I've been transplanting from seedling trays into 18 ounce plastic cups (holes in bottom) with Metromix 360 in it. I was thinking of keeping the transplants in the cups until after May 2 (it's running cooler than average but the plants are outside) & since most were transplanted to cups a week ago I was wondering about giving them a dilute fertilizer. Initally I was thinking dilute Alaska fish fertilizer (0-10-10) but a landscaping friend urged something with nitrogen in it, another friend began babbling about applying dilute fertilizer when the cups are dry (Idon't think that is a great idea but that's just me) & I decided to ask for help before proceeding.
The plants I keep are going into raised beds with a wonderful blend of topsoil, compost & aged turkey manure with molasses & alfalfa cubes scattered in so they will do well (I hope). The previous tomato beds are for beans, squash & root vegies this year.

[Barbee]

Thanks for the compliment
From what you're saying, your beds sound wonderful. Plenty rich in nitrogen with that manure and alfalfa in there. When you plant out into the beds, those babies are going to jump. So if you're going to fertilize, I'd just go with your diluted fish fertilizer 0-10-10 to build strong roots and general health.
Just my opinion.

[stormymater]

My problem, if you want to call it that, is that right now my beds are covered - literally covered, with boxes (strawberry, pineapple, banana, avocado, mushroom, you name it is out there) full of tomato babies in 18 ounce cups! Like so many I am embarassed to admit. Suffice it to say I used the same technique with my hot & sweet peppers & I have several hundred of them & THEY all look marvellous (LOL). I followed all the great advice & recs from Tomatovillians & I am awash in cups & cups & cups of baby maters! I'll be having a yard sale after giving away many to friends & wonderful Freecyclers who gave leaves & horse poop & I'd like these tough little fellers looking their best. I am cool with the purplish cast from the cold we've had but some appear a little yellowish on first true leaves & that got me worried about what my landscaping buddy had said about maybe something with a bit of nitrogen - I am taking care not to overwater but my cups seem to dry out fast with our spring sun & endless beach winds.
Hmmm, reading back... OK - I'm totally tomato crazed. LOL! I gave away a baker's dozen today to a friend with an awesome garden - black cherry, pink ping pong, supersnow white, red calabash, amy's sugar gem, aunt ruby's yellow pear, riesentraube, beams' yellow pear, franchii red pear (2), aunt lucy's italian paste, amish gold & lime green salad. It was like handing out pups I had hand fed!
Anyway picking & choosing through the MANY cups today I noticed the aforementioned purples & some yellowish & got to worrying about the fertilizer issues.
Thank you again for all your input - it has worked great so far! Ami - those Isis Brandy's are looking awesome & I will bag blooms provided I get that far!

[Barbee]

In that case, I'd fertilize them.
Being embarassed to admit you planted too many seedlings on this message board is sort of like preaching to the choir, ain't it? LoLoL

[stormymater]

0-10-10 or something with nitrogen too? If so what do you advise? Diluted blue stuff or ...?

[robin303]

I use the diluted blue stuff and fish emulsion and I like Black Kow from Lowe's. It goes on everything LOL.

[stormymater]

Robin - you mean into the cups?

[dice]

Note: The 0-10-10 is actually Morbloom, a Lilly Miller blossom
booster. "Alaska" is just the (Lilly Miller owned) brand name
that it is marketed under. It claims to contain some fish
emulsion, but the phosphorus is from superphosphate, the
potassium is from muriate of potash (toxic to earthworms),
and it does not claim to contain any nitrogen or trace elements,
so one wonders just what was left of the fish to add to the
chemicals in Alaska Morbloom. (Only suitable for foliar feeding
at flowering time, in my personal opinion.)

When people suggest "a little fish emulsion for seedlings",
they are usually thinking of the Alaska Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1,
Maxicrop 5-1-1, Peaceful Valley's PVFS 4-2-2, Neptune's Harvest
2-4-1, Squanto's Secret 2-4-2, Drammatic 2-5-0.2 or 2-2-0.2,
one of the fish+kelp products, and similar fertilizers
(nitrogen-containing liquid fertilizers made from actual fish
with the forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium and
the wide spectrum of trace elements that are found in actual
fish). That would be my guess.

Terracycle's liquified worm poop products would probably be
good for this, too (a little pricy for something that you use
as is, meaning that it is not a concentrate that one dilutes
in water at so many tablespoons per gallon for use, something
true of all of these fish emulsion products; no fishy odor, though,
if tending plants indoors).

If you lack any of that sort of product, you could take a shovelful
of what you think is your best dirt (or horse manure), put it in a
5-gallon bucket of warm water, stir it up well, let the silt in it settle
out a bit, and water them with that.

[stormymater]

Thanks Dice - was dreamin' last night (really - totally addicted) about my leftover alfalfa cubse & dried molasses - went over to the "wild side" (grasscity.com LOL) & read an article that suggests my dream had some substance to it.

http://forum.grasscity.com/general-i...ur-plants.html

I appreciate your suggestions & the warning about the "Alaska fish fertilizer". It sounds like it has real potential to burn those tender recently transplanted roots - something I really don't want to do at this stage of the game. I am probably too invested in my 'mater babies LOL.

[robin303]

Yes I do Stormy. Not a good picture but they like the stuff.

[stormymater]

OMG! What Nice babies Robin! Happy Hour indeed! Well, no pics from me until the kids get some nutrition!

[robin303]

Heck that is just three. I still have 59 left overs.